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Temecula: Southern California’s undiscovered wine country is a hidden gem
View from the Falkner Winery tasting patio in Temecula, CA
Temecula may well be the most enjoyable California wine country you’ve never heard of.
And even if you HAVE heard of the small wine-producing region tucked into in southern California 70 miles north of San Diego and 90 miles east of Los Angeles, there’s a strong likelihood you haven’t visited. But you should.
My most recent visits to California have included stops in other less-favored wine-producing regions (well, less favored than the Napa-and-Sonoma juggernaut) such as Lodi, and Paso Robles and Santa Barbara. Temecula has its own quirks and idiosyncrasies, but my Temecula visit in early July was every bit as satisfying, and in some ways moreso.
Don’t let Temecula’s southern latitude fool you. Sure, it gets plenty hot here on summer days, but the Pacific Ocean is the west coast’s giant air conditioner, and a break in the mountains to the west funnels cool ocean air into Temecula’s vineyards (and into town, as I quickly learned) every day starting at about 4 p.m. The cool blasts allow Temecula’s vineyards to flourish.
And make no mistake, there are some excellent wines produced here, and of all stripes — whites, reds and dessert wines. Sauvignon blanc is a strength among the whites, as are Rhone varietals such as Roussanne and Viognier. While cabernet sauvignon and merlot do well, some of the most interesting reds come from Rhone and Italian varietals such as syrah, grenache and sangiovese.
Not that those of us back East would know about these great wines, mind you. None of the three dozen or so wineries in Temecula is large enough to put wines into full, national distribution, and even the region’s biggest and most ambitious producers don’t have distributors yet in markets such as Ohio, although some do ship wines here.
I do recall that back in the 1980s, Callaway Vineyards sold wines such as its fine “Calla-lees” non-oaked chardonnay (talk about ahead of its time!) on a broad scale, including Ohio, But a decade ago, Pierce’s Disease decimated many of Callaway’s (and Temecula’s) vineyards, and Callaway went through multiple ownership changes. It’s now on the road to full recovery but sells wine only from the winery, but no winery has yet reached Callaway’s national footprint.
Temecula has a bit of a schizophrenic nature, and the geekiest of wine geeks may want to stick to a return visit to Napa and all its trappings. Many of Temecula’s wineries depend on tourism to survive, so they market themselves aggressively as lifestyle destination spots, or as wedding sites, or both. A quiet visit to a tasting room might be shattered by a limo that pulls up carrying a cadre of Orange County women who are already half in the bag. It makes for fun people-watching ,although one’s laser-like focus on wine-tasting may blur a bit.
And some wineries give a nod to tourists by producing a handful of sweet wines, or by leaving just a touch of residual sugar in some of their wines. In my wine world, where German rieslings and demi-sec-style Vouvrays are greatly appreciated, that’s no crime. Some of these off-dry Temecula wines are quite good, still balanced with acidity and fun to sample — but those whose wine snobbery commands them to condemn any wine that has a hint of sweetness should be forewarned.
Still, Temecula’s winemaking corps still has its purists, those who put the focus squarely on wine (and on dry wines) and don’t apologize one bit for it. My first stop at Hart Family Winery introduced me to one of them — Joe Hart, one of Temecula’s wine pioneers — and to some of the best wines I sampled during the trip.
Hart was among the first wave of Temecula’s winery founders, and he is the last surviving member. He purchased property in 1973, planted grapevines in 1974, and built his winery in 1980.
“When we started, there were only three wineries out here,” Hart said. A former schoolteacher, Hart gained an appreciation for white wines while visiting Bavaria and for reds during a trip to Venice. And while Temecula “is neither Venice nor Bavaria, it is a great place to grow wine,” Hart said.
Learning his age — he’s 78 — is a bit of a shock, because Hart looks 15 years younger. He is soft-spoken but not shy to share an opinion. And he has a few to share.
“I’m not a fan of the direction of the direction we’re headed in Temecula,” Hart says. “I think some of us have lost our focus on wine, which is to our detriment.”
Some of his fellow winery owners “don’t care — for them, it’s not about the wine, it’s about the experience.”
As you might imagine, the Hart Family Winery tasting room is rather spartan, and the focus is, by golly, squarely on the wines. Highlights included a mouth-watering 2009 Hart Family Winery Sauvignon Blanc ($18); a fruity, balanced 2007 Sangiovese ($24), and a surprising and delicious 2005 Cabernet Franc ($25), true to its varietal with a mild herbal notes and fine length. And I suspect Hart is one of the few winemakers in the country (or the world) to blend grenache, tempranillo and syrah in a bright, drinkable ‘07 he calls “Three.”
The winery that put Temecula on the map two decades ago, Callaway Winery, is right next door to Hart. Callaway is a mere shadow of its former self, volume-wise: In the mid-1980s, the winery had 750 acres of vineyards and produced 500,000 cases a year, and now tends to 70 acres of grapes and makes less than 25,000 cases a year today. There are still plenty of choices, however: Callaway’s wine list in its spacious tasting room features more than two dozen bottlings.
Callaway’s winemaker, Craig Larson, shows a deft touch with his 2008 Callaway Winemaker’s Reserve Quartet ($28), a blend of chardonnay, sauvignon blanc, semillon and viognier that is complex and shows just a touch of oak. And it’s easy to see why the 2009 Special Selection Rose of Sangiovese ($18) is dubbed by the winery “Darling of the Wine Competitions,” with its bright strawberry fruit, hint of sweetness and balancing acidity. Callaway also produces one of the best syrahs in the valley, the 2007 Winemaker’s Reserve Syrah ($38), with a peppery note and great length.
Phil Baily, proprietor of Baily Vineyard and Winery, worked as a management consultant in Los Angeles until the early 1980s, when his firm was sold. Baily and his wife Carol decided to “make a life change,” Baily said, and moved to Temecula with no intention of starting their own winery. But after befriending some of the valley’s winemaking families, Baily caught the wine bug, and his namesake winery opened in 1986. Today, Baily is both co-owner and winemaker; his wife Carol oversees a restaurant at the winery; and his son and daughter-in-law run two restaurants in Old Town Temecula, Baily’s Fine Dining and the Front Street Bar & Grill.
Red wines are a strength here, in part because Baily shows great patience in his cellar decisions. The reds generally age for 30 months in oak, are bottled, then are held in the winery for one additional year before release. The resulting wines are smooth, supple, and balanced. Highlights included a 2005 Baily Cabernet Franc ($26.95), packed with silky fruit with a touch of herbs (a barrel sample of the ‘07cab franc showed great promise, too); 2006 Baily Merlot ($19.95) that could reawaken your taste for this grape; and 2006 Baily Meritage ($42) that hasn’t been released yet but which also has a great future. To show his wines’ aging potential, Baily opened a bottle of 1998 Meritage that showed beautifully, fully mature and at its peak, with great length.
The Mount Palomar Winery is also one of Temecula’s pioneers, growing and producing wines since 1969. Its wines today are made by Craig Boyd, a Pittsburgh native whose great-grandparents lived in the Dayton area.
Boyd has a playful side that suits him well to some of the more obscure grape varieties he’s working with at Mount Palomar, which is one of very few wineries — Boyd knows of only one other in California — to produce a varietal Cortese, a white-wine grape from the Piedmont region of Italy. Boyd hopes to expand Mount Palomar’s cortese plantings and also add arneis and picpoul, two other European grapes that are not exactly household names in the U.S.
Both Mount Palomar’s Castelletto 2007 and 2008 vintages of Cortese ($24) are gorgeous, with effusive aromas of flowers, apples and minerals, with an intriguing hint of nutty bitterness in the finish. Another only slightly less obscure grape shows up again in one of the winery’s best reds: The 2005 Best of Vintage Charbono ($44), which boasts a touch of iodine and forest floor reminiscent of the fine Mourvedre produced in the Bandol region of France.
Two stunning dessert wines also stood out: Mount Palomar Limited Reserve Port ($38), made in a solera style from multiple vintages back to 1998, and Solera Cream Sherry ($29/500 ml), aged in bourbon barrels.
All wines are made without pretense: “I don’t make trophy wines,” Boyd says. “I take a lot of pride in making great table wines. I like to hear corks popping.”
Corks were popping aplenty during a late Thursday afternoon visit to Wilson Creek Winery & Vineyards, where the tasting bar was packed with customers showing why this opulent winery is one of Temecula’s top attractions.
The wines here are made under the steady hand of Etienne Cowper, who used to drive through Temecula in the late 1960s after growing up in Orange County. Cowper earned a degree in agricultural chemistry, made wines in New Mexico, then came to the Temecula area to make wines for the aforementioned Mount Palomar.
He’s been at Wilson Creek for three years, and says plainly that his job is to “make sure we don’t lose the focus on wines.”
Wilson Creek’s signature wine is its Almond Champagne, fermented with almond oil. But Cowper shows pride in other fine offerings that include a textbook 2007 Estate Viognier ($18.95), a dry 2008 Estate Grenache Rose ($18.95) and a peppery, French-style 2007 Syrah ($32.95).
Some of Temecula’s best views and most striking architecture can be found at Falkner Winery and its restaurant, The Pinnacle. Both are owned by Ray and Loretta Falkner, who had successful careers elsewhere — Ray in the high-tech industry with IBM and Microsoft, Loretta in fashion retail for Macy’s and Montgomery-Ward — before buying the winery in 2000.
Falkner markets itself aggressively as a wedding and banquet destination and produces a semi-sweet red wine (3 percent residual sugar) it calls “Luscious Lips,” a blend of syrah and sangiovese. Its lineup also includes a very fine 2009 sauvignon blanc ($18.95) and an exotic, honeysuckle-scented 2008 viognier ($24.95). Falkner also practices patience with its red wines, holding them for three years before release. Falkner’s 2006 Rock Creek Vineyard Syrah ($26.95) is smooth and beautifully balanced.
If one winery is poised to lift Temecula to greater prominence outside southern California, it is likely South Coast Winery, which in 2008 and 2009 won the “Golden State Winery of the Year” award from the California State Fair (it missed out on the 2010 award despite taking home a slew of medals from the fair’s wine competition). South Coast also operates a resort, spa and restaurant, but it clearly hasn’t skimped on its wine program.
Tasting room highlights included a bracing, refreshing 2007 Semillon ($18), an intriguing 2008 GVR ($20) blend of grenache blanc, viognier, and roussanne, and a fabulous 2006 Wild Horse Peak Syrah ($44), with ripe fruit married with black pepper.
Temecula is a wine region of many personalities, and at the moment, it’s using all of those personalities to create a satisfying whole. Wine lovers and wine novices alike can find plenty to enjoy in this easy-to-visit and underappreciated wine region.
For more information about Temecula wineries, go to this Temecula Valley Winegrowers Association web site.
Mark Fisher is wine writer and food and dining reporter for the Dayton Daily News.
Insider tips for visiting Temecula
— Fly in and out of Ontario Airport rather than Los Angeles or San Diego — much less crowded, far less traffic and fewer headaches.
— If you’re looking for quiet visits to the tasting rooms, visit early in the week, and avoid weekends. And go early in the day. Most tasting rooms close at 5 p.m., and those that stay open until 6 p.m. get a bit crazy during their last hour of business.
— Stay in or near “Oldtown” Temecula, which has enough restaurants, wine bars, gift shops and antique stores to keep everyone in the family happy. Options include the rustic Palomar Inn Historical Landmark Hotel (www.palomarintemecula.com, 951-676-6503), built in 1927, or if your tastes run to the modern, the nearby SpringHill Suites by Marriott (www.Marriott.com, 951-699-4477), which opened within the last year.
WHERE TO EAT
— Meritage Restaurant at Callaway Vineyard & Winery (951-676-4001)
— The Edge Restaurant and Lounge in Old Town Temecula (95- 506-3343)
— Baily’s Fine Dining in Old Town Temecula (951-676-9567)
— Vail Ranch Steakhouse in Temecula (951-694-1475)
— Soro’s Mediterranean Grill in Old Town Temecula
All photos by Mark Fisher, except for the photo of Joe Hart, courtesy of Hart Family Winery.
A shorter version of this story was published in the Dayton Daily News on Friday, July 24, 2010.
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Comments
By Mrs.Winegeeks
July 27, 2010 10:04 AM | Link to this
Nice article, Mark. I enjoyed Temecula when I visited long ago. Sounds like it is time for a repeat trip.
By mark fisher
July 26, 2010 3:27 PM | Link to this
Michael: Thank you for the tip on other wineries to visit in Temecula. I wish I would have had a few more days to spend there …
By Michael N
July 26, 2010 11:53 AM | Link to this
I’m a Temecula local and enjoyed your article. As you mention there are over 35 wineries/tasting rooms to visit. While you mentioned some excellent wineries you missed some of our best. On your next visit make sure you go to: Briar Rose, Doffo Winery, Gershon Bachus, Stuart Cellars (an Ohio native), Palumbo, Oak Mountain, and Lorimar Winery, to name a few others.
By CrysW
July 26, 2010 9:39 AM | Link to this
Went to Temecula in 1995 (was during the OJ trial so I was able to verify the date - didn’t think it was so long ago. I remember being very favorably impressed by Callaway in particular, but in general it was a nice alternative to Napa/Sonoma. Sounds like it’s a little more bustling now than when I was there.
By chiefwino
July 25, 2010 11:04 PM | Link to this
Lot of changes since we first visited Callaway in ~1984. Ga Tech alumni and Univ of GA alumni met for a wine picnic and to listen to the Tech-UGA football game (no satellite back then). Great November weekend wine tasting on the patio over looking the valley but had to put up with the UGA fans bragging about Hershel Walker.
By Jim T
July 25, 2010 3:12 PM | Link to this
You should write more often. :-)